Manolo for the Beauty

Someone who knows me well gifted me with a three-month Birchbox subscription, and I just received my first box two days ago.   I’m a little too new to the whole Birchbox thing to pronounce judgement upon it yet, but I’ll be sure to do so when my subscription is up.

One of the products inside was Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss  in a bright fuchsia.   Not my normal go-to color, but I know that what the product looks like in the packaging doesn’t necessarily translate to what it looks like on your skin.  This would be one of those times.

It went on without any real tackiness (which I LOATHE in a lip gloss) but not in a way that I would call slick, either.  It was surprisingly thick in texture.  It had a fair amount of shine, and not a whole lot of color.   Even with the brightness, it barely made a color impact on my lips.   It was impressively shiny, so I suppose if you wanted a medium amount of color and a lot of shine, two coats might do the trick.

The size of the gloss was actually minuscule, almost like it belonged on a charm bracelet, which is fairly insulting because it isn’t like I was getting the product for free.  I’ve been given much bigger samples at the beauty counter and not had to pay a cent.

So, given the lack of color and the decision to provide such a small sample, I don’t think I will be purchasing this gloss any time soon.

Have I mentioned before that I’m quite lazy?

I’m so lazy, I like to pick one toenail color for the entire summer and stick with just that one so that upkeep is easier.

Pathetic, I know.

This summer, I have anointed OPI’s DS Glow as the chosen color.  Or actually, my son did, as I gave him a couple of choices when I dragged him along to the beauty supply store on the way to Target.  Actually, I think he secretly likes going there because the ladies all fawn over him.

DS Glow is part of OPI’s Designer Series, and apparently it is one of the only ones that isn’t holographic.

Well, fine by me.

It’s a gold-ish/bronze-ish color that sort of, well, glows.  I guess you could call it glittery, but there are definitely no big glitter chunks. I’m much too old for big glitter chunks.  No, it is more like teensy tiny metallic flakes.  It’s a very subtle shimmer that I like very much.  So far it is wearing extremely well, and it makes me happy to look at my toes.

Thanks, son.  You’ve got excellent taste.

Now, just keep up that sense of discretion when you start dating, and all will be well.

Having heard the hype about this lip balm, I was excited to receive it as a “birthday gift” from Sephora.  Of course I had to buy something to get my gift, but whatever.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t quite live up.

It does go on nicely, I will give it that.  It also has a screw-on cap that makes it perfect for purses.

But that’s about all.

I’m not a fan of lemon scents, so it immediately gets a minus from me on that, although some of you may love it.

I don’t find this product to be long-lasting in any way.  If there is one thing I look for in a lip balm, it is that I don’t have to keep reapplying it.  For me, this stuff lasts for about a half hour, and then my lips feel as dry as if I’d never put anything on at all.  BIG minus.

Chapstick will save you a bunch of money and works better.

Or, if you prefer pricey balms, I highly recommend this one.

Oh, how I resisted jumping on the NARS blush bandwagon.  I mean, everybody was doing it and I didn’t buy one just to be ornery.

Instead of proudly standing against the crowd, I found out I was just plain stupid.

Seriously the best blush I’ve ever used.

The color is described on Sephora as a “peachy pink” sans shimmer, which is what I was looking for.  On the website, the color swatch looks more intense than the uber famous Orgasm, which is also what I was looking for.  My medium, olive-y skin takes color well and light blushes look silly on me.

So with trepidation I ordered Amour, and wore it for the first time to a party and could not believe how wonderful it looked.  It was natural-looking but gave me a perfect glow.  It is also eminently buildable, for as dramatic a look as you want.

It wore very well throughout the night with zero touchups, but I also attribute that to my great powder and the fact that it was cold.

I would totally recommend this blush to pretty much anyone.

The perfect mascara.

For me, anyway. Mascara is just one of those things that is so individual, it is almost impossible to recommend one that is great for everybody.

May I introduce Make Up For Ever’s Smoky Lash mascara.  Finally a Make Up For Ever product that I like!  I’ve tried so many that didn’t impress that it’s nice to find something from the brand that makes me happy.

Now I don’t actually recommend this product too much for everyday wear, but as I work from home, usually I only apply mascara when I’m going somewhere special.  I like Laura Mercier for a “natural” look mascara.

There’s nothing particularly natural about Smoky Lash.  It is one of those products that totally looks like you are wearing mascara, but in a very good way.  It’s nice and thick and deeply pigmented, more so than any other mascara that I’ve tried.  It almost looks like fake eyelashes, and I’m OK with that.  But it isn’t clumpy and I’ve not had any flaking, which is sort of amazing for such an intense-looking product.

It comes in quite a few colors, including plum and blue, but I stuck with good old black.

So if you like a strong, thick-looking lash, this product is worth checking out.

Meh.

I received this as a Christmas gift because my family knows I enjoy a good exfoliator.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing that they know this or not, but hey, if it gets me free stuff then I’m all for it.

I like my exfoliating washes, especially for the body, to be thisclose to being painful.  You see, in my irrational mind, if I can’t feel the top layer of skin being removed as I use it, then it isn’t any good.

In this department, The Microdelivery  does not deliver.  Actually, I’m not even sure how this could be considered to be even mildly exfoliating.  Whatever the things are that purport to be scrubbing your skin are VERY soft.  Therefore to me, FAIL.

And, unlike many philosophy products, this doesn’t even smell good.

So I find using it to be a colossal waste of time, because if it doesn’t at least smell good, then I’ve got much better things to do.

But for those of you who enjoy fooling yourself into thinking your washcloth has fantastic exfoliating properties, then this just might be your thing.

For some things, I can be a creature of habit.  I would say that makeup brushes fall into that category.

I am extremely lazy about buying new makeup brushes, although I probably ought not to be.  So when a mini kabuki brush came with my Bare Escentuals starter kit, I never really thought about purchasing a different one.   It worked, after all.

Little did I know what was waiting for me the entire time.

I started thinking about getting a replacement buki brush about a year ago.  Mine was at least six years old, and was starting to shed quite a bit.  I also didn’t like the fact that when I packed it to go somewhere, it wouldn’t fit properly in my brush wallet, thus needing to hang out on its own in a Ziploc bag with the Bare Escentuals makeup itself.  You know, because I’m classy like that.  This was before they introduced the self-closing jars.  And amen to those.

Ahem, getting off track here.

So for my next buki, I vowed that it would be a retractable one, and a mini one as well since I just don’t like the way the full sized bukis apply, but that could be all in my head.

After a long (and to be honest, intermittent) search, I came across the Too Faced Retractable Kabuki Brush.  I ordered it with some trepidation, but it had five stars from Sephora reviewers, so I felt things couldn’t go too badly.

Long story short, I adore this brush.

It is so, so soft.  And before using this brush, I equated a certain stiffness in a kabuki to be a desirable thing.  But now I know that isn’t necessarily the case.  I love that it comes in a very pretty, girly metallic casing, and I LOVE the way it retracts.  It doesn’t twist down, but has a little “shield” that pops up before you put the cap on, thus ensuring the bristles don’t get smushed.   Oh yeah, and it also does a better job at applying the powder than the BE brush.  It does it a bit more subtly, although maybe that was just the age of my BE brush showing.

Should have bought it a loooong time ago and well worth the expense, especially for someone who regularly uses mineral makeup.

*Bought with my own damn money.  I have NEVER gotten a freebie to review.  Although, uh, I wouldn’t be against it.

I had a nice little discount given to me by Sephora a few weeks back, and you know when you have to reach a certain amount of money and your’re just looking for some little thing to bridge the gap? Well, Sephora by OPI nail color was that item for me.

I chose “Make the First Mauve” which, as a name, is just a bit much for me. The color is kind of nice, a bit darker than I usually use on my hands, but it definitely grew on me. It’s a grey-ish purple, perfect for winter.

Part of the reason I so rarely use nail polish on my hands is that I don’t like spending the money for base and top coats, and I wash my hands a LOT. So even though it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, I base my nail polish reviews on how long a polish lasts without any “help.”

Well, Sephora by OPI lasted less than a day before it started chipping. Yes, it’s a dark color. No, I didn’t use a top coat. But I truly think less than a day is pretty unacceptable no matter what.

I like the formula, I like the color, but I HATE the quality.

So, I must give this nail color a thumbs down.

Simply put, if you need/want an eyelash curler, don’t waste your money on anything else.

I’ve found that as I’ve aged, my eyelashes have started growing straighter than they used to.  Don’t know if that is common, but for me, a pain in the butt because lashes that stick straight out instead of curving up do not look all that great with mascara.  So, to the eyelash curler I went.  A simple squeeze, no pain, no pinching, and voila!  Beautifully curved eyelashes begging for some mascara. 

There isn’t an eyelash curler that even comes close to Shu Uemura’s, and many have tried.  I don’t know exactly what voodoo they use in the making of this thing, but it is almost magical.  I have NEVER hurt my eyelashes using this product, and as long as you are careful about placement, you won’t either.

Remember, always curl before applying mascara.  Otherwise, you’ll get nasty bits of mascara all over your curler.  Not pretty.

I  normally tend to stay away from products that purport to be multi-purpose.  For some reason, I don’t trust a product that says it is going to work as well on my hair as it does on my skin.

But, it was a semi-emergency in that I was already in the shower and too lazy to get out and get my shampoo, which was on the kitchen table.  OK, so maybe not much of an emergency, but I bet you would have done the same thing.

I used the philosophy product both as a soap and shampoo, even though I didn’t really need to use it as a soap, just because I love you guys that much.  How can I give a review of only one part of a three part product? 

Let me just say this, if you don’t have anything else, yeah, you can use it as a shower gel.  It isn’t outstanding, though.  Definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to use it for that purpose.

Surprisingly, I preferred it as a shampoo.  It cleansed my hair nicely and didn’t leave any kind of weird residue.  My biggest concern was that it would dry my hair out, but it did nothing of the sort.

And my hair smelled like cake, which was a bonus.   They’ve got lots of different, delectable scents, so feel free to go wild.